Idaho County free press. [volume] (Grangeville, Idaho Territory) 1886-current, 1887-07-08
THE LAWS Of HABl l.
The Daily Drill and Its Ehects-Hapis
the IlywheeI of Society.

In0 DuiAy anu A''
the TlyyheeI of Society.
DR.. Carpenter, fro IN whose "Mental
Physiology we have quoted, has SO
prominently enforced the principle that
orr ORGANS grow to the way in which they
have been exercised and dwelt upon its
consequences, that his bsok almost de-
serves to be called work OF edliicatlon
ON this account alone. We need make
no apology. then, for tracing a few of
these consequences ourselves:
Habit second nature! Habit Is ten
times nature" the ID uke of Wellington
is said to have exclaimed; and the degree
to which this is true lho one can probaDly
appreciate as well as one who il Is vet
eran soldier himself. The daily drill and
the years Of discipline end by tashlonlnG
a man completely owe r again, as to most
of the possibilities of his conduct. There
is a story, which iB credible enough,
though it may not be true, OF PRACTICAL
joker, who, seeing q discharged veteran
carrying home his dinner, suddenly called
out "Attention!' wEhereupon the man
instantly brought his hands down, and
lost his mutton and potatoes in the gutter.
The drill had been thorough, and its
affects had become embodied in the man 8
nervous structure.
/ Riderless cavalry horses, at many n
| battle, have been seen to come together
and go through their customary evolu-
tons at the sound of the bugle call.
! Most trained domestic animals, dogs and
oxen and omnibus and car horses, seem
to be machines almost pure and simple,
undoubtingly, rnhesl tatingly doing from
minute to minute the duties they have
been taught and giving no sign that the
possibility Of an alternative even suggests
| itself to their mind. Men grown old IL
prison have asked to- he readmitted after
being once set free. In railroad acct
dent to travelling managerle IN The
United States some time in 1884 tiger
whose cage had beer broken open, Is sale
to have emerged, but presently crep
back AGAIN. as If too much bewildered by
his new RESPONSIBILITIES, so that he wa
without diff Guilty SECURED.
Habit is thus the enormous flywheel O
society, its most precious conservative
agent. 1t alone is what keeps us al
within the bounds of ordinance, ant
saves the children of fortune from Thu
cnvious uprisincs OF the poor. 1t alon
prevents the hardest and most repulsiv
walks of life from being deserted b.
those brought up 10 tread therein.
keeps the fisherman and the deck hant
at sea through the winter it holds thu
miner in his darkness, and nails TIN
, countrvman to his log cabin and hi
lonely farm through ali the months o
, snow; it protects VS. from invasion D.
the natives Of the desert and the frozel
zone. 1t dooms III all to fight out thu
battle of life upon the lines OF our nurt
IRE or our early choice. and to make TIN
best Of pursuit that disagrees, becaus
there is no other for winch we are htted
and it is too late to begin again.
keeps different social strata from mixing
+ Already at the age Of 25 you see the pro
fessional mannerism settling down on TIL
Young commercial traveller, on the youn!
S doctor, on the young minister on tn
' Young counselor al law. You see TIL
| little lines of cleavage running through
5 the character; the tricks of thought, tn
e prejudices, the ways of the shop IN
| word from which the man can by AM
by no more escape than his coat sleeY
can suddenly fall in to n new set of folds
On the whole, it is best he should no
a, escape 1t is well for the world that Il
most of us, by the age of 30. the char
acter has set like plaster, and will neve
soften again. William James in Popu
! lar Science Monthly